Most of you following this blog know that we have been trying a variety of Winter squashes this year. This week was time for the Blue Hubbard, considered by some the very best Winter squash.
The problem with Blue Hubbard is that it is not only a large oddly shaped squash but its outer shell is extremely tough. This makes it near impossible to peel with a knife (in fact using a knife is a probably a great way to bludgeon yourself).
I was told by a friend in Texas that her aunt recommends bagging the squash in plastic and dropping it to a hard ground in order to break it to pieces. That would probably work well on concrete, however I was afraid to damage the flesh of the fruit.
My solution: a hatchet. This worked incredibly well. A good hard hit to the squash would easily split it and allowed me to quarter it in a minute.
The next part was skinning. To tackle this, I actually took my Blue Hubbard pieces and placed them in the oven (350 deg. C for 15 minutes). This process pre-cooked the squash making it somewhat easier to peel. Then it's just a matter of dicing and in our case freezing the squash for future use....with the exception of some squash for this week's project.
Since we have been eating Winter squash every week this fall we have tired a bit of this great food. We needed something very different for the Blue Hubbard. I decided to go to a French family tradition for inspiration (on the Normand side): a pumpkin marmalade.
Now they did not use Blue Hubbard in Normandy to make this marmalade. The key ingredient in France was the "Potiron", a small bright orange and squat squash that really resembles a small pumpkin.
In any case, I decided to create a marmalade recipe around this concept since Blue Hubbard is very similar in taste and texture to the traditional pumpkin.
To do this, I coarsely shredded some squash and an orange (the ratio was 3 times the squash per amount of orange). I processed this like our traditional jams and for the equivalent of four cups of fruit, I added a tablespoon of freshly and finely shredded ginger for "zing".
The result was a fantastic golden coloured marmalade. The squash really picked up the orange flavour and yet the preserve still had a great hint of "pumpkin". This was a winner with the family and will certainly also become a traditional Ridge Berry Farm preserve for our country market.
On the farming front we are still clearing brush. The thorn bushes are quite an effort and seem to be everywhere. As we struggled through these however we did find a pleasant surprise.
Although it does not look like much (yet), we uncovered an entire row of old grape vines all on trellises It turns out that some of the "wild" grapes Tristan and I were picking this summer, were actually extensions of these vines which had run up some trees just to catch a glimpse of sun. I suspect they are all Concord grapes.
We're now quite excited to bring these back into the light. This however will call for a lot of brush clearing, the felling of entire rows of trees (and associated stumping ...which is extremely hard work). Then finally we may be able to rebuild some of the trellises which have fallen and prune the vines. This is a lot of work, but on the other hand it can take years to grow grapes while always facing the chance they do not take. These look very healthy (to say the least); we just need to "tame" them.
As we continue to work the cleared land on the front of the property, we've also discovered a drainage problem. We should have known this given the pervasive presence of Elephant grass. Although the land slopes well, I suspect that the large amount of water on this end is the result of the septic tank overflow.
Having worked on a plugged septic tank drainage pipe earlier this summer, we now know where they lead and I believe these are the cause of the over irrigated soil on this shallow slope. This is now a new problem Tristan and I have to tackle.
We can not do much because of the tractor's tendency to get stuck in the very thick mud. So we decided first to dig some very crude drainage channels at strategic locations. We now hope to see how well the soil drains before moving further. Our options are to continue with well prepared drainage channels, to extend the septic tank drainage pipes, or to bring in a lot of top soil (and effectively rebuild a ridge). I hope we will be able to make due with option one and perhaps dig a drainage pond on the edge of the forest where the Elephant grass still thrives.
On a final note, for those following this blog and perhaps using Facebook, we now have a Facebook page: Ridge Berry Farm on Facebook. If you use "like" on this page you will be notified of our new postings and we will be extending the information on this page to address all of our farm news.
I will leave you this week with another discovery: our Beavers have neighbors. Although, we have been referring to our center pond as the Beaver pond, it turns out the back pond is now home to one or more of these large rodents. The evidence is all around the pond. In the following pictures you will see the felled trees, Beaver trails, and their brand new den. It is amazing how much work these Beavers have done in just a few weeks.
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